Family Holidays
by dark-night-sky
Summary: A young Alfred and Matthew find themselves bored at the beach, so go on an adventure. They don't manage to tell their fathers that they're going for an adventure, and end up causing Arthur and Francis a lot of distress. At least they found a pretty awesome sandcastle. Oneshot, fun times all round.


**A/N:** So this was my competition entry for Sunnycon's fanfiction contest, which I won a prize for, so yay me! It's the most K-non-shippy thing I have ever written, so I'm quite proud of myself.

**Family Holidays**

"Al, wait for me!"

"Come on, Matty, you're being too slow! Don't you like walking and stuff?"

"I'm not used to climbing this many stairs."

"Slowpoke Matty! Slowpoke Matty!"

"I'm not slow!"

"What did you say?"

The younger brother sighed, not answering the question. He was used to it being asked, and Alfred rarely actually expected an answer anyway. The six year old and seven year old were heading up the stairs to a lookout point at the beach, Alfred had wanted to have an adventure, and apparently that meant they had to be able to see the whole beach. Matthew knew they should've stayed with their parents. It would make life so much simpler. He didn't see why they couldn't just ask to go, rather than sneaking off.

"Daddy's going to be angry with us, you know?"

"You worry too much. You're too slow, and you worry too much. Now faster! We're almost at the top!"

Where his big brother got his enthusiasm from, Matthew would never know. Probably all of the candy he ate, unless his burgers had a secret ingredient.

"Matty, stop getting distracted!"

"Sorry!"

xXx

It was a beautiful summer's day, the sun out, clouds mostly non-existent, the beach was bustling with people and brightly coloured towels; it was everything Francis could ask for. Though it would help if they weren't at an English beach, he was fairly certain those teenagers hanging around in tracksuits in the shade weren't to be trusted, but he would take what he could get. He was surprised that Arthur had agreed to come out and brave the sunshine at all.

"I'm going to get sunburnt."

He could probably do without the complaining, too.

"With the amount of sun cream you've lathered onto your skin, I should imagine you'll be safe. You'll remain nice and pasty-pale."

He didn't need to look to know that green eyes were glaring fiercely at him. The thought of it was making him quite pleased with himself.

"Why did we have to come to the bloody beach anyway?"

"You know exactly why, _Lapin_. You so very rarely have such glorious days in this country that it would be a crime to not take advantage of it. And if I remember correctly, it was our sweet _petit_ _garçons _that wished to come."

"You spoil them."

"One of us has to, _Sourcil_."

"What did you just call me?!"

Francis smirked, finally opening an eye and looking at the man hunched up under the parasol he'd insisted they brought. "I thought you didn't speak _Français_?"

The sour look on the angry face meant he'd won this one.

"Where are the boys, anyway?"

"They are probably playing by the sea," Francis waved the question off, eyes closing again. "I'm sure they're fine."

"We need to keep an eye on them; it's far too busy here."

"Why don't you go find them?"

"You're coming with me."

The Frenchman scoffed. "I am not the paranoid one here."

"You're coming with me."

The voice was closer this time. Before he really had time to argue or question what the man was doing, Francis had a face full of sand. He snapped into a sitting position, shaking his head and spluttering, spitting in the most dignified matter he could to rid himself of the offending substance, turning to find the culprit.

"Are you insane?!"

"I just thought you'd need some motivation."

"I have sand in my mouth!"

"Perhaps you should've thought about that before you objected to accompanying me."

"You think this is going to make me _want_ to come search for the boys with you?"

A wicked glint flashed through Arthur's eyes. "Do you need more motivation?"

"_Put the bucket down_."

"I know how hard you worked on the picnic we brought," the Englishman crouched to fill the bucket with sand again.

"_Arthur do not even think about-_fine! Fine, I'll come with you!"

"Glad to hear it," he dropped the red toy, standing and brushing his knees down. "Let's try by the sea first."

xXx

Blue eyes widened as they looked out across the entire beach. Or as much of it as he could see, it seemed to stretch for miles! He could see all of the people, every single last one of them, playing by the sea or making sandcastles, sitting on their bright coloured beach-towels, walking up and down the pier. Matthew wanted to go on the pier, but the idea of there only being small planks of wood between him and the water made him a little nauseous.

"See, Matt, isn't this awesome?"

The younger could only nod wordlessly.

Alfred was bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement however, zipping about trying to decide where they should have their adventure. There were so many people, everywhere, and all of those sandcastles that the other children were making, and maybe they should go make sandcastles with the other children, though obviously their sandcastle would be the best because he would help make it and he made awesome sandcastles and-Dad never told him that there was an _ice-cream van_ on the beach!

"What do you want to do first, Al?"

"Ice-cream!" it was a silly question. "Ice-cream, ice-cream, ice-cream!"

"I thought you wanted an adventure without Daddy and Papa?"

"Pfft, we can go get ice-cream without Dad and Pops."

"We don't have any money for it."

This deflated the hyperactive boy. "Oh yeah."

"Why don't we go into the water?"

"We've been in the water, Matt," was the tired reply. "We have to do something_ different_."

Matthew wasn't going to point out that ice-cream wasn't different. "What's that, over there?"

"What?" Alfred snapped his eyes to where the finger was pointing. "What are you pointing at?"

"Near the rocks, that big-looking-castle."

There was a moment of complete silence, until Matthew realised it was so quiet because Alfred was already running down the stairs.

"Hurry, Matty, we have to go investigate!"

"Wait up!"

Matthew really hoped they wouldn't need to come back up all those stairs.

xXx

They weren't by the sea.

When they came to the beach, the sea was the one place that you were sure to find Matthew, and Alfred was usually nearby making sandcastles. Matthew knew to no go too far when playing in the sea, and to stay in the general area of his parents, and he rarely rebelled against that.

"This is no reason to panic," Francis said evenly. Not that he was panicking, but he didn't want to have to deal with Arthur panicking. "I'm sure they are close by. Perhaps they just got bored of the sea?"

Arthur gave him a disbelieving look, one brow raised.

"Children get bored very easy, _Lapin_, there is no need to look like that."

"Because Matty is known for getting bored and wandering off without telling us, _Froggy_."

The Frenchman's irritation levels were rising. "No, Alfred is much more likely to do that."

"Hey, don't go blaming Al for this."

"You are the one who says Matthew would not be likely to do so, and we both know it's true."

"If you weren't so busy sunbathing instead of helping me watch them, maybe this wouldn't have happened!"

"And if your eyebrows didn't take up half your face maybe you'd be able to actually see them."

"YEAH WELL NO ONE ASKED YOU!"

"No need to get so sensitive."

"I am not sensitive, you cheese-smelling fart-breath!"

"At least I am not a drunkard with no cooking talent!"

"No need to be so jealous!"

"Like I could ever be jealous of you, you-!" the sound of crying cut off whatever Francis was about to say, causing the two blondes to turn and look at the noise. A toddler, sat on the floor by his sandcastle, crying helplessly as his mother tried to quieten him down. The look on her face said she blamed them.

"This isn't getting us anywhere," Arthur said, running a hand through his hair, trying to calm down. "We should keep searching. There's an ice-cream van somewhere here, they might be there."

"They do like ice-cream, it would be a good place to check."

They left with as little fuss as they could, still hyper aware of the glare the mother was giving them. As if she would be any less easily-riled if her child had gone missing.

Ignoring the fact that they didn't really need a reason to get into a spat.

xXx

"This really doesn't seem like a good idea," Matthew whispered, growing more and more nervous as they got closer to the castle. This was a really quiet part of the beach, in fact there wasn't anyone here at all, they'd passed the crowds long ago, and it was one of the reasons he didn't trust this castle. Surely there should be lots of people wanting to look at it, right? But there was no one.

"Don't be such a wimp, Matty, it's just a sandcastle, an _awesome _sandcastle!"

"I dunno…"

But it was too late to turn around. They were at the door, which was about half the height of Alfred, who was a pretty big seven year old, and nearly reached Matthew's shoulders.

"Maybe we should knock."

"It doesn't really look like it opens."

"How do you get into it?"

"Maybe there are steps round the back."

Matthew shuffled closer to Alfred. "Are we going to check?"

"Duh, we didn't come all this way just to stare at it, of course we're going to check!"

"I'm happy staring at it."

"Maybe we should climb over it."

The two looked up to see how high they'd have to climb, and what they saw had both of them scream. Bright red eyes bore down at them, a sinister smile accompanying it.

"It's a ghost!"

"Hey!" the sinister look vanished instantly, replaced by anger. "I am not a ghost!"

The boys froze, looking up at the strange combination of red eyes and white hair.

Alfred took a shaky step back. "If you're not a ghost what are you?! You're so pale!"

"I just haven't got much of a suntan yet."

"You're paler than Pops!"

"I don't know who that is, but I am taking offense!"

"He is pretty pale."

The red eyes snapped between the pair of fearful boys, anger disappear and leaving curiosity in its wake. "What are you doing here anyway? This is my part of the beach."

"The beach is haunted?"

"I'm not a ghost!"

Matthew finally spoke up, stepping in front of his brother, who was definitely okay with having something between him and the ghost. "We were on an adventure, and saw your castle, so came to see it."

"It is pretty awesome, huh?"

Matthew took a tactical step backwards onto his brother's foot just as Alfred prepared to say something insulting. "Yes, it is."

"Well, seeing as you're clearly awesome – but not as awesome as me – and looking for adventures, I guess I could let you in."

"Do you want to come on an adventure with us?"

"What kind of adventure?"

The youngest turned to his brother, not sure how to answer that.

Alfred grinned, excitement coming back into his eyes. "A pirate adventure!"

The strange man had a grin to match, the glinting red eyes making it a little bit intimidating. "To do that we need a ship."

Matthew glanced between the pair as they began to laugh, getting so loud that he wondered how their parents didn't hear it from where they were. What had he signed himself up for?

xXx

"They're not here either."

"They've got to be somewhere."

"This is all your fault."

"Piss off, frog-face."

"You were the one in charge of looking after them."

"I think you'll find that we're both in charge of looking after them."

"You were the one paying attention though."

"Will you shut up and come search with me?!"

Francis rolled his eyes, moving over to stand closer to the edge of the lookout point, where Arthur had paid to use a telescope to see the entirety of the beach.

"This thing doesn't move enough."

"Shall I try?"

"The last thing you need is another way to perv on people."

Francis sighed. "You ruin all of my fun."

"I do try."

The pair went back to trying to find their children, most of their fighting done with for now. They were both getting a bit too worried about the boys to really focus on each other.

"What's that, over there?"

"What?" Arthur tried to turn the telescope to see.

"It's not going to move far enough," Francis pulled the Englishman back, grasping the sides of his head and pointing him in the direction. "There."

"It looks like a castle, and a…what is that?"

"I don't know."

"It kind of looks like half of a ship."

"Can you see the people?"

Arthur squinted, trying to spot the moving bodies. "There's one, but he kind of looks a bit big to be…there! Two boys!"

"Two boys?"

Arthur spun round, eyes wide. "Who is with our boys?"

"Can you make the telescope go there?"

"It won't budge."

"Then make it budge!"

"I can't make it budge if it's designed to not budge."

"There is some creepy pervert with our children and you're too busy playing with a toy to care!"

Arthur scoffed. "They're used to creepy perverts, you're their Papa after all."

"And now you are _joking_ about it?!"

"No need to be so melodramatic, we'll just go down there and see."

"_How are you so calm right now_?!"

The Englishman took hold of Francis's arm, dragging him off towards where the strange half-ship was being made. It was a fairly long way down the beach from where they had supposed to have been making sandcastles and playing in the sea. Arthur was fairly certain it would be easy to lure them away from anything they were doing and back to their stuff with the temptation of ice-cream.

What they were greeted with was not what they had been expecting.

It was definitely supposed to be a ship, and behind it was some kind of giant sandcastle that looked like it was designed for someone to actually sit in it. Inside the ship, running around with sand to try make the walls higher, were three people, two young boys and an adult with white hair, one boy quietly working on his own part while the other boy argued with the adult.

"Papa! Pops!"

Arthur grimaced as soon as he heard the name and nearly turned round and left. "I've told you not to call me that."

Alfred just grinned in response, pleased with the irritation he caused. "Do you like our ship? We're pirates!"

"Why did you run off without telling us? You had us worried sick!"

"Don't be such a downer, Pops."

Before he could scold the boy more, Francis cut Arthur off. "_Gilbert_?"

The white haired male turned from where he was helping Matthew, red eyes wide as he looked at the pair standing outside the ship. "Oh, hey Francis."

"Gilbert?!" Arthur snapped. "As in your weird German friend?!"

"Hey! I am not weird! I'm also not German, I'm Prussian."

"Prussia's not even a place anymore!"

"You take that back!"

"It was dissolved years ago! You're German!"

"I am Prussian and proud!"

"Papa, you know Mr Awesome?" Matthew asked in an attempt to diffuse the situation. It would be more effective if he wasn't so quiet.

Francis was paying enough attention to notice, turning his attention from the arguing adults to his son. "Mr Awesome?"

"That's what he told us his name was."

Chuckling, Francis rolled his eyes. "Of course he did, not changed a bit, have you, Gilly-bear?"

"I would say the same for you, Franny, except you apparently have children now, so you've definitely changed."

"These are my darling _garçons_, Matthew and Alfred!" Francis sighed happily. "How can you not love such adorable faces?"

"As if you're also shacking it up with this English prude, I thought you knew better."

"We're raising the children together, don't read too much into that," Arthur stated flatly.

"Ohoho, it's more than just that though, isn't it, _petit Lapin_?"

Arthur flushed as an arm wrapped round his shoulder, wasting no time in digging his elbow into Francis's side. "Don't touch me."

"Pops!" came a familiar whine. "You haven't said anything about our pirate ship yet!"

"I'm sure he loves it, Alfred, your Daddy used to be a pirate."

"No _way_! But pirates are so cool!"

Arthur bristled. "I was cool!"

"Yeah, _was_ being the key word there."

Gilbert smirked. "I think I like your kids, Franny."

"Though it is a nice ship. Even if you're working with the German on it."

"I am not-!"

"Come help us finish! Then we can get ice-cream!" Alfred buzzed, bouncing on the balls of his feet with wide eyes to match his smile.

"I don't think so."

"Aw, please! Matty wants you to too, don't you, Matty?"

The quiet boy nodded, looking as innocent as he could.

Arthur groaned, making both the boys cheer, and Francis couldn't help but laugh. It was the groan of submission.

"Fine, I'll help. But then you are coming back with us and there will be no more wandering off, understood?"

"Nope, no understanding here."

"I swear to God, Al-!"

It wasn't the family outing that Francis has exactly expected them to have, and he was fairly certain that even with all that sun cream Arthur had lathered on his skin he'd still be burnt, which meant Francis would be dealing with him being whiny and feeling sorry for himself the next day, but he couldn't say he'd really mind. Spending the day making a sand-ship with his family and old friend before ice-cream was more interactive than the day they would've had.

Part of him almost felt like he should thank the children for running off to have adventures and scaring them half to death.


End file.
